The Wheel E! True Hollywood Story

[14gameshows]

Ok, I have a few questions about this.  From my understanding, Wheel was not the anchor of the NBC Daytime lineup or was it?  

Also I didn't recall Wheel being the no.1 show amongst gameshows/daytime tv period?

So is that man still under the wheel controlling when the wheel would stop?  (I always knew that Wheel was a fishy show)

If Wheel debuted in 76, and the Erasure of NBC happened in 78 with prior shows and years gone because of that, wouldn't shows after 78 survived?  (Case in point, where is Goodson-Todman's Mindreaders at anyways?)

Could the fact that the "missing episodes" of the Woolery/Stafford era be because of the contract dispute with Griffin?  Is the man that mean, spiteful, and hateful?

When did the shopping era come to a close?

Why in the world did Wheel become so darn cheap when CBS picked it up?  Press Your Luck had a bigger budget than that!

Who do you believe, Chuck or Merv about the contract dispute?

---and for the 25 point boner, (audience laughter SFX) I mean bonus question, do you think Chuck could do the job again, if given the opportunity?

[urbanpreppie05]

[quote name=\'14gameshows\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 12:32 PM\']Ok, I have a few questions about this.  From my understanding, Wheel was not the anchor of the NBC Daytime lineup or was it? 

Also I didn't recall Wheel being the no.1 show amongst gameshows/daytime tv period?

So is that man still under the wheel controlling when the wheel would stop?  (I always knew that Wheel was a fishy show)

If Wheel debuted in 76, and the Erasure of NBC happened in 78 with prior shows and years gone because of that, wouldn't shows after 78 survived?  (Case in point, where is Goodson-Todman's Mindreaders at anyways?)

Could the fact that the "missing episodes" of the Woolery/Stafford era be because of the contract dispute with Griffin?  Is the man that mean, spiteful, and hateful?

When did the shopping era come to a close?

Why in the world did Wheel become so darn cheap when CBS picked it up?  Press Your Luck had a bigger budget than that!

Who do you believe, Chuck or Merv about the contract dispute?

---and for the 25 point boner, (audience laughter SFX) I mean bonus question, do you think Chuck could do the job again, if given the opportunity?

[snapback]72996[/snapback]

[/quote]

I thinK hollywood squares was a "bigger" anchor. But it always seemed to me that the shows supplemented each other.

Reference please?

Probably not. And NO game show is rigged. Get that through your head.

That's a theory that may be true...but we don;t know. And wheel premiered in 75, not 76.

NO. That doesn't even make sense.

1987 syndicated, 1989 daytime.

The budget had been steadily cut from Pat leaving. (102K on Pat's last show, 77K on Rolf's first, 40K on Goen's first) To keep in tandem with the nighttime show, they switched to all cash...but with a smaller budget, they made the prizes smaller. Its akin to TPIR's daytime and nighttime budgets.

Neither. They're both lying. :-)


Maybe, but now that pat has hosted for 3 times as long as he did, it wouldn't make much sense to bring him back.

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'14gameshows\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 10:32 AM\']Ok, I have a few questions about this.  From my understanding, Wheel was not the anchor of the NBC Daytime lineup or was it? 

Also I didn't recall Wheel being the no.1 show amongst gameshows/daytime tv period?

So is that man still under the wheel controlling when the wheel would stop?  (I always knew that Wheel was a fishy show)

If Wheel debuted in 76, and the Erasure of NBC happened in 78 with prior shows and years gone because of that, wouldn't shows after 78 survived?  (Case in point, where is Goodson-Todman's Mindreaders at anyways?)

Could the fact that the "missing episodes" of the Woolery/Stafford era be because of the contract dispute with Griffin?  Is the man that mean, spiteful, and hateful?

When did the shopping era come to a close?

Why in the world did Wheel become so darn cheap when CBS picked it up?  Press Your Luck had a bigger budget than that!

Who do you believe, Chuck or Merv about the contract dispute?

---and for the 25 point boner, (audience laughter SFX) I mean bonus question, do you think Chuck could do the job again, if given the opportunity?

[snapback]72996[/snapback]

[/quote]
In no particular order: yes, no, no, because, 1987, and Cleveland.

[whewfan]

---and for the 25 point boner, (audience laughter SFX) I mean bonus question, do you think Chuck could do the job again, if given the opportunity?

Based on what Chuck has said about his regretting leaving WOF, I think he would consider it. Merv has nothing to do with Wheel anymore, so that shouldn't be a factor. The only problem is, Wheel has changed since so much since Chuck left. No more shopping, the addition of toss up puzzles, and I think the bonus game was only there towards the end of the run.

I'd love to see Chuck return for an April Fools episode, or if they do retro week again, there would be another opportunity.

On the other hand, Chuck may not want to come back, even for one show, because Wheel has become so much "Pat's show", that he'd just be invading what's become his territory.

Nancy Jones commented on the E! THS that Pat was a little difficult during the time that he had his own talk show, and he seemed bored with Wheel. Does anyone here think that sometimes Pat looks bored with Wheel today?

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'urbanpreppie05\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 12:56 PM\']Reference please?
[/quote]

It was mentioned in the THS, but that caught me too. Wheel never finished #1 for the season, or at least not in daytime. In the 70s #1 was MG7x up until 77 or 78 or so, FF for a year, and TPiR since then. The highest Wheel ever got was #2, and that was early-80s at least.

It was the #1 game show on NBC for several years, but that's about it. It faced TPiR throughout the 80s, so it obviously wasn't winning its time slot.

[uncamark]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 03:10 PM\'][quote name=\'urbanpreppie05\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 12:56 PM\']Reference please?
[/quote]

It was mentioned in the THS, but that caught me too. Wheel never finished #1 for the season, or at least not in daytime. In the 70s #1 was MG7x up until 77 or 78 or so, FF for a year, and TPiR since then. The highest Wheel ever got was #2, and that was early-80s at least.

It was the #1 game show on NBC for several years, but that's about it. It faced TPiR throughout the 80s, so it obviously wasn't winning its time slot.

[snapback]73035[/snapback]

[/quote]

And number 1 overall in daytime for the network--which didn't say much about NBC's record in daytime back then.

[The Pyramids]

[quote name=\'uncamark\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 03:23 PM\'][quote name=\'fostergray82\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 03:10 PM\'][quote name=\'urbanpreppie05\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 12:56 PM\']Reference please?
[/quote]

It was mentioned in the THS, but that caught me too. Wheel never finished #1 for the season, or at least not in daytime. In the 70s #1 was MG7x up until 77 or 78 or so, FF for a year, and TPiR since then. The highest Wheel ever got was #2, and that was early-80s at least.

It was the #1 game show on NBC for several years, but that's about it. It faced TPiR throughout the 80s, so it obviously wasn't winning its time slot.

[snapback]73035[/snapback]

[/quote]

And number 1 overall in daytime for the network--which didn't say much about NBC's record in daytime back then.

[snapback]73040[/snapback]

[/quote]

Exactly. I bet that's the missing context.

Where did all of those Woolery clips come from?

[14gameshows]

well I didn't want to open Pandora's Box but this is why I was asking about the status of Chuck's episodes, if there were truly erased or are they not being aired.  I contacted the Griffin Group last year about this issue and they told me that I would have to contact Sony as they bought the game show properties of Merv Griffin Enterprises and also they said that Merv never erased any of his projects, so with that in mind, I have to think that they are either somewhere in some studio vault intact (with Griffin knowing where they are) or maybe they are locked up and someone have forgot them.  I'm also going on this theory because Dark Shadows and Hollywood Squares were found in a vault somewhere all intact.  I really dont believe that all the properties that NBC "supposedly" erase are actually gone.  I think that the location of the properties are forgotten due to company take overs, name changes, etcs.  ALSO I must say that those clips shown on the ETHS, were very clear as if they borrowed footage from a master recording.  And even though video tapes were expensive back in the day, if CBS and ABC preserved most of there stuff, NBC could have as well.  Wouldn't legal copyright issues come forward about a third party erasing my work???  Case in point, IIRC look at the Texaco Star Theatre, supposedly those shows were "missing" but a lawsuit brought them up to dry land, ehh?  Think about it.  I would like those in the business to respond to this so I can get another point of view please!

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'14gameshows\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 08:01 PM\']Case in point, IIRC look at the Texaco Star Theatre, supposedly those shows were "missing" but a lawsuit brought them up to dry land, ehh?  Think about it. 
[/quote]
The last person who wove conspiracy theories out of whole cloth, then told us to "think about it", isn't a member here any more.

Just sayin.

[mmb5]

Most, if not all, of the Woolery clips I recognized from trips to the Museum of Television and Radio and/or UCLA.  Combined they have about a dozen episodes, so it's not out of the realm they got them from there.


--Mike

[bellbm]

Does anyone think that if Pat wouldn't have left the daytime version it might have survived to this day?

I mean, did the ratings tank so quickly with Rolfe behind the "wheel" that NBC had to pull the plug, or were they in a steady decline.

I just can't believe that the show was #1 at night, and I imagine most of the people who watch at night are around to watch during the day.  Maybe Pat Sajak didn't realize it at the time, but he was already doing "the Pat Sajak Show" before he went to CBS.

[PYLdude]

[quote name=\'14gameshows\' date=\'Jan 25 2005, 01:32 PM\']So is that man still under the wheel controlling when the wheel would stop?  (I always knew that Wheel was a fishy show)

If Wheel debuted in 76, and the Erasure of NBC happened in 78 with prior shows and years gone because of that, wouldn't shows after 78 survived?  (Case in point, where is Goodson-Todman's Mindreaders at anyways?)

Could the fact that the "missing episodes" of the Woolery/Stafford era be because of the contract dispute with Griffin?  Is the man that mean, spiteful, and hateful?

Why in the world did Wheel become so darn cheap when CBS picked it up?  Press Your Luck had a bigger budget than that!

Who do you believe, Chuck or Merv about the contract dispute?

---and for the 25 point boner, (audience laughter SFX) I mean bonus question, do you think Chuck could do the job again, if given the opportunity?

[snapback]72996[/snapback]

[/quote]

Note I'm only answering a few of these, because I think everyone else answered them better among those who did.

-You sound like someone who wrote in to the TV section of a paper complaining that Wheel was rigged, and the writer responded with something along the lines of that person needed help. (Saw it on Leno.)

-Doubt it. Jeopardy! 1978 had only one episode exist, I believe (game of the week).

-No- they probably don't exist.

-Uh...your point? By 1989 a lot of shows were cheapened. Think about when PYL aired, and look at it later. Need I remind you what happened on Sale Of The Century? Once the WBMG came in, the prize budget seemed to go down.

-Don't care.

-If you asked me five years ago, I'd say yes. Not nowadays.

[Dbacksfan12]

[quote name=\'PYLdude\' date=\'Jan 26 2005, 01:44 PM\']-Doubt it. Jeopardy! 1978 had only one episode exist, I believe (game of the week).
[/quote]
The episode shown on Game of the Week was the 2000th episode from the original run, best as I can remember.
One episode, that I can recall has aired from the second NBC version; that being the finale during the "Y2Play" Marathon.

[Ian Wallis]

You're correct that GSN has aired two episodes of the Fleming version of "Jeopardy" - the 2000th episode, and the last from the '78-79 version.  The first from that version exists among traders, as do a few others from the original '64-75 run.  It is believed that GSN has the entire '78-79 version, but - like many other shorter-run shows - has chosen not to air it, except on special occasions like the former "Game of the Week".

[14gameshows]

As far as Wheel being rigged, sorry I made that comment, it was only a joke really!  There is a group called S & P which would have a fit and also NOW, Sony would be under heavy investigation and it would have a domino effect on all of their properties and King World's properties.  Money people!